About three years ago my family adopted a dog that was literally on doggie death row.  The dog, now named Bruno, had been adopted and returned 3 times due to his extreme anxiety issues and we were warned it would be rough at times.  It is!  Bruno has led to several fence repairs, doors replaced, and probably chewed up 1000 more things we haven’t noticed gone.  Over time he has overcome several of his issues, but fam’, thunder and lightning is not one of them. So, since I have been up since the first roll of thunder and loud crack of lightning, I have had some time to reflect on our last couple of weeks of school, as well as what lies ahead.  We all have had, and still have, those kids that test us the most because they seem like they don’t care how they perform on anything.  After TSI2 and SAT testing this week we all got to hear kids share how excited they were on how they performed.  Some of the least likely came busting in the AP office to share how great they did, or more amazingly, how close they got to passing.  These moments, thanks to the storm, and Bruno, triggered a Rambling that I had to type out.  

The Power of Influence:  Test Season Motivation”

There’s a scene in Facing the Giants that hits differently this time of year. Test season. Pressure season. The season where every late night, every lesson, every conversation feels like it’s building toward one defining moment. Watch the clip or skip and read a summary below: 

In the scene, Coach Taylor challenges his player, Brock, to do the death crawl—a grueling crawl across the football field with a teammate on his back. He blindfolds him, pushes him, and never lets up.

At first, Brock just wants to get to the 50-yard line. But with every step, the coach is in his ear:

“I need your very best! Don’t quit on me! You keep going!”

Brock doesn’t stop. He digs deeper. He crawls farther than he thought possible. And when he collapses, totally spent, shaking, and overwhelmed, he discovers that he made it all the way to the end zone.

Here’s the truth: you’re Brock, but you’re also the coach.

You’re carrying your students, guiding them across the field, blindfolded by uncertainty and exhaustion. But you also have the voice. The influence. The power to say, “You’re not done yet. There’s more in you.”

Test season is more than bootcamps, lockdown browsers and testing rooms. It’s the culmination of influence—months of pouring belief into kids who might not hear it anywhere else.

We influence how they see themselves. 

We  influence how they show up when things get hard.
We often influence how they’ll face pressure for the rest of their lives.

That’s not small. That’s legacy-level work.

And sometimes, in the middle of the crawl, it feels like too much. You’re tired. You’re questioning if it’s making a difference. But here’s what you don’t always get to see:

The kid who didn’t believe in himself until you did.
The one who heard your voice in the back of their mind when they wanted to give up.
The one who will remember your encouragement long after the test scores are forgotten.

So, keep crawling. Keep pushing. Keep coaching.
Your influence isn’t measured by test scores, it’s measured by lives changed.

And trust this: even when you feel like you’re carrying them across that field on your back, you’re getting them there.

And they will remember who helped them believe.

I hope you each get a lift from this post, or the video clip, and will share experiences of Facing Giants and completing a death crawl. 

Keating

As we move into full on testing season for the year it’s important to stay positive and remember that if we believe in our students they will know it and they “keep at it” regardless of how challenging things might be.  The story below epitomizes the importance of believing you can…

In 1983 Cliff Young stepped to the line ready to run the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultra Marathon.  No one took him seriously because he didn’t look like he was ready to complete a 5K let alone the 544 mile race from Sidney to Melbourne.  You see, Cliff was 61 years old and wore overalls and work boots when he picked up his race number and joined the other runners. He was told that he was crazy and would not be able to finish the race. He explained to them that he grew up on a 2,000-acre farm, with thousands of sheep. His family could afford neither horses nor tractors so, when the storms came, his job was to round up the sheep. Sometimes, he said, it would take two or three days of running. “It took a long time, but I’d always catch them. I believe I can run this race,” he said.

When the gun went off, Cliff immediately fell to the very back of the pack.  Soon even the back of the pack disappeared ahead of him. But a 61 year old toothless farmer, racing in overalls and galoshes. After 18 hours of running, the leaders stopped for some rest.  The conventional wisdom was that running 18 hours straight and then sleeping for 6 was the best recipe for success over this distance. The first night of the race Cliff did not stop for sleep.

The story goes on with Cliff following this same strategy to just keep running.  At the completion of the race he was asked why he didn’t take any breaks like the others to which he replied, “I didn’t know I was expected to stop.”  Not only did he finish the race, he won and broke the previous record by over two days! 

He succeeded because he thought he could instead of listening to others say he couldn’t.  THIS IS WHAT GROWTH IS ALL ABOUT!  Believing you can and then going for it while not letting the tough spots stop us.  We all have students that do this daily but unfortunately, not all of them believe they can, so it is our job to convince them that they can. Our task is to show them that we believe in them until the growth mindset emerges in them and they take control of their RACE. Some of our students have never heard that they are good enough, smart enough, or even worthy of success so it ain’t easy to convince them of it, nor is it easy to always stay positive as teachers, but stories like Cliff Young  remind me of a few student stories I have in my career that did what some experts said that they would never do.  Ask me about Jacob, Amy or Ruby sometime and then listen to me talk about them for a bit (don’t laugh though when I start to tear up). They are just a few of those I have taught that motivate me every single day to keep that Can Do mindset working.

What experiences do you have seeing a growth mindset at work?  Or perhaps a quote you feel exhibits these characteristics? Please share

I remember coming across this picture over the break and it made me laugh.  I laugh because it is true, right?.  We all send in a rescue chip when the 1st one breaks.  I know for myself that I ain’t quitting the rescue mission until I get my original chip safely out of queso and that sometimes that means 4 or 5 rescue missions before I use the fork or spoon to get my chip back.  Let’s be honest; it’s queso so I could possibly use a straw if needed. Oddly enough, as I was playing with my grandson before dinner I thought back to the State of the Campus session when what Dr. Davis and Mrs. Chadwick shared about never giving up on students and finding out what they need to succeed hit me between the eyes (or ears).  That’s when my teacher brain kicked in and started thinking about how our approach to teaching is much like the battle to save the broken chip…

‘Giving up’ is something that seems to be more and more common for the students in our schools.  I think those on the outside need to open their eyes to the students that need the most support. We simply mustn’t let them give up. I know you have a student or two in mind as you finish reading this sentence, don’t you?  I certainly have a few from my time in the classroom..  

On the outside all might seem well and they might be smiling and even be handing in their work. But we need to make sure that they are making progress as a person and that they are not giving up inside.  Something I have noticed in the past with these students is that in the face of pressure or feedback, a student that is giving up will not respond positively. It usually gets, “Who cares? So what? Or “My life sucks anyway.”  High schoolers say it with more colorful words, but you catch my drift.  Sometimes we might get the softer reply of, “I’ll try harder next time” and “I really did try my best.” Sometimes that is true but often it’s just a dismissive statement because they know it’s what we want to hear.  For those students we must make sure to keep a close eye on them and make sure that they are still engaging with lessons.

So how can we help?

These students sometimes need a plan specific to them and they need to know what they need to do. A truly personalized approach to their learning, that is broken down into manageable chunks, will really help them to keep going. This is something we can do long before it looks like a student is going to give up. This is not necessarily differentiation by definition, rather it is about ensuring that students know what they need to do and don’t get too much of a rude shock down the line into the year.  It is never too late to make a difference, but the sooner we start the better.  

I was often tempted to just say – “Well it’s your choice,” but these are young people with some often extreme pressures on them from being exposed to elements of life much too soon in their maturation and they lack the mental stability to see a way forward.  In many cases they don’t really have a clue of what it means to care or make a “good choice”.  Sometimes they have never been taught what “caring” looks like, sounds like or even what it might feel like, so making a choice that shows they care is new.  I am sure we all got into teaching for the outcome and certainly not the income.  We also know that the biggest challenge to changing an outcome is the need for them to care.  This ain’t an easy thing to do, but as teachers, we always find a way because we don’t leave our broken chips in the queso, do we?  🙂 

You all do an amazing job. Every. Single. Day.  And you do this despite a myriad of challenges thrown at you that could easily knock you off your track, but it doesn’t, because you are the best.  

So hey, If I can help you with this challenge in any way let me know.  I am here to help…  And I have a big bag of chips to help get the job done!  

Keating